


Teen Wolf, Season 2, Episode 8, Raving

by TheSomewhatRamblingReviewer



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Analysis, Episode Review, Episode: s02e08 Raving, Meta, Nonfiction, Season/Series 02, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-03
Updated: 2018-10-03
Packaged: 2019-07-24 20:27:05
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,638
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16182566
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheSomewhatRamblingReviewer/pseuds/TheSomewhatRamblingReviewer
Summary: Warning: Contains spoilers for both the episode and the rest of the series. Complete.





	Teen Wolf, Season 2, Episode 8, Raving

Open to Jackson at school. Getting a text, he leaves.

Elsewhere, Matt is waiting in line to get tickets for the rave, and noticing Jackson, he asks if he's going to be punched again. Jackson completely ignores his babbling, and Matt offers to let him cut in front of him.

Scott is watching from afar.

Elsewhere, Sheriff S is displeased with his veggie burger and the celery sticks Stiles got in place of curly fries.

Wanting to talk about the case, Stiles looks at his dad's board. Sheriff S makes a lacklustre effort to get him to desist. Giving up, he says found a commonality between the three victims. “Once is an incident, two's a coincidence, and three's a pattern,” is brought up.

All the victims besides Coach Lahey were 24. Isaac’s brother, Camden, and his death in combat is brought up due to the fact he would be 24, too.

Back at the place, Scott comes to talk Matt. There’s a funny moment where, upon finding out how much the tickets cost, Scott asks to borrow some money, and in an interesting character moment, Matt readily agrees until it’s established Scott wants to borrow the amount a ticket would cost. Heh.

Meanwhile, Stiles and his dad realise the victims were all in Harris’s class together.

Back at the line, one of the classmates is behind a security barrier. Jackson is next in line, and sufficiently unnerved, the classmate gives him a ticket.

There’s an awesome visual of her being raised up and gradually disappearing from view.

In a morgue, Chris and Allison discuss two of K-Jackson’s victims. He intentionally guilt-trips her, and she agrees to tell him everything she knows.

Like Derek, this is morally gray. Chris is trying to save lives. However, if he hadn’t been abusing his daughter and wasn’t so unwilling to work with the shapeshifters who aren’t on serial killing spree, he wouldn’t have to resort to more abuse.

He’s still trying to keep Gerard in check. Gerard is getting tired of this, and whether he had anything to do with Victoria’s attack or not, he uses it to both punish Chris and further free himself from his son’s attempts to avert war. If he reveals who he really is, who he’s always been, right now, he might not be strong enough to take Chris. He needs his son a little more broken before it’s safe to reveal.

And so, Chris has been pushing his daughter into doing the same thing he’s had to do and the same thing Gerard is doing. She’s too empathetic, just like he once was, she has too much hope, just like he once did, she sees shifters as people, just like he still sometimes can’t stop himself from not. She wants to protect them; she believes she can be friends with and even love them.

He learned mostly not to see them as people. He couldn’t protect the friend who went rabid.

Chris could have been a good father. He could have nurtured the huntress, the kind knight who uses her weapons and skills to protect people, who knows when to back down and when to dig her heels in and, if necessary, die on a hill. He could have been the first person she turned to whenever she needed help, whenever people needed help that she couldn’t provide alone.

Instead, he tried to find a balance between being the father he thought he had, disciplined, principled, and fearless, and the father he didn’t want to be, cruel, merciless, and containing a blind spot for what his golden child really was.

For a long time, he managed to be the first, but once Gerard reappeared, the second began to win.

Meanwhile, at Deaton’s, Scott wants to know what Isaac is doing here (the answer: Derek **needs** him). “I don’t trust him.”

“Yeah, well, he doesn’t trust you, either,” Isaac snipes.

“And Derek really doesn’t care,” Derek informs both of them. Heh.

Coming out, Deaton asks if the plan is to kill their “friend” or save him. Derek answers the former, but Scott makes it clear it will be the latter.

In the exam room, Isaac starts to touch some vials, and grabbing his wrist, Derek orders, “Watch what you touch.”

Isaac curiously asks if Deaton is a witch, and Deaton curtly answers, no, he’s a veterinarian.

Deaton asks if K-Jackson has any weakness.

Unlike captain of the swim team Jackson, K-Jackson fears water.

They move onto theories as to why K-Jackson couldn’t kill the mother.

Scott suggests Jackson’s own mother dying pregnant had something to do with it, and Isaac suggests K-Jackson can only kill murderers. In response, Scott asks if Coach Lahey was a murderer, and Isaac answers, “It wouldn’t surprise me if he was.”

It’s decided they’re going to use the fact K-Jackson is being controlled to find out by whom and stop both him and his controller.

The next morning, at school, Scott and Stiles run into Matt. He tries to talk to them about the incident in the library, and Stiles couldn’t care less about the concussion Matt received.

It’s established Matt got tickets online.

In the locker room, Isaac is hanging nearby as Stiles tries to convince Danny to give them his two tickets. When Isaac comes over and grabs them, Danny leaves.

Calling them losers, Isaac asks how they manage to survive. Seeing a boy with two tickets, he pats Stiles on the chest “Wait here, boys.”

Off-camera, he beats the boy up. Then, coming back over, he thrusts the tickets on their chests. Patting them, he says, “Enjoy the show.”

I don’t buy this scene, though, interestingly, it makes Scott himself look bad. If it did happen, Scott let a werewolf beat up a human without even trying to help. For all I don’t believe in people answering some call to heroism, there are several things he could have done that wouldn’t have hurt or inconvenienced him too badly.

If I see someone getting beat up, I’m probably not going to put myself in physical danger, but there is a good chance I’ll be calling the police or trying to find someone else to help me help the person being beat up.

For all I don’t buy this scene, I will give Scott credit in saying this is realistic for Isaac. He’s still drunk on power, often reliant on violence to get things done, and Derek has made it clear Scott and Stiles are, temporarily, much more closer as allies than they’ve ever been. They needed tickets, and since they couldn’t get them themselves, he knew it was his responsibility to do it. Moreover, both they and Derek needed him, and so even more than the power-rush and a potential excuse to use violence, he wanted to help them.

He’s in-character, but for other reasons, I don’t think it happened like this. He did something, and he got them the tickets for them.

In an empty room, Scott comforts an obviously falling apart Allison. She brings up Chris knowing more about K-Jackson.

With her being so upset, now might may not be the best time, but it’s come to a point where he needs to tell her about Gerard. Instead, he tells her about Victoria, and she doesn’t particularly understand why pencils’ being sharpened is a big deal.

Her dad with Matt is brought up, and he agrees it’s a good idea.

They kiss, and when they leave, and it’s revealed Victoria was creepily watching them.

Mays deserves props for how bug-eyed Victoria is during the scene.

This could have happened, but there are arguments to be made for and against it. I don’t buy the whole cutting herself with a large knife, but something made Victoria try to kill Scott. I don’t know if she just snapped, if she genuinely had reason to believe he’d broken the code, or if somehow Gerard played a part in this happening.

At the clinic, Deaton gives Stiles and Scott ketamine to inject into Jackson.

Incidentally, ketamine is often used as a date-rape drug.

Mountain ash makes its first appearance proper. Deaton gives Stiles a bag, and he stresses Stiles’s belief is necessary for it to work.

Over at the Argent household, Victoria is nowhere in sight, and Chris is leading the so-called matrilineal, all-male hunters with Allison sitting nearby. He insists there will be no collateral damage tonight.

He dismisses Allison, and once she’s gone, Gerard points out it seems she believes they’re setting a trap for K-Jackson. Chris’s response is, “She doesn’t need to know any more than that.”

This is what Gerard and Kate decided about him, too. He didn’t need to know Kate, at least, was going to kill a family of werewolves and their human kin. It’s never explicitly established the person who told Kate to do this was Gerard, but if it wasn’t him, when he did find out, he didn’t care. His heir hadn’t done anything wrong, and he was going to protect both her and himself from the different-coloured sheep of the family.

Meanwhile, Stiles is rushing off when Sheriff S gets home, but noticing his dad’s subdued mood, he also notices Sheriff S is lacking his badge. Sheriff S tries to encourage his son to go out and be a teenager, but Stiles insists they talk. It’s revealed, due to Stiles’s part in kidnapping Jackson, Sheriff S was relieved of duty. He tries to reassure Stiles they’ll be fine.

Stiles desperately asks why he his dad isn’t angry.

Sometimes, when kids are older, they do something wrong, it’s obvious their parent(s) are disappointed, and some part of the kid feels they should be punished. Often, the answer is, ‘It wouldn’t do any good.’ The kid’s at an age where they’re either going to make the decision to change or they’re not, regardless of punishment. Even though it might have felt like it, in the past, them being punished wasn’t to make the parent(s) feel better; it was done, because, it had a chance of working.

“I don’t know. Maybe I just don’t want to feel any worse than I already do by, uh, having to yell at my son.”

Both Sheriff S and Melissa are somewhat hands off in parenting. In his case, he lost his wife. All he has left, not just of her, but in general, is his son, and some part of him knows he should do something about all the lying and other misbehaviour, but he knows his son. If Stiles decides to leave, he won’t be able to stop him.

When a widow(er) has a kid, the kid is usually what helps them be okay. However bad things are, the kid needs them, and they have to find ways to cope and relearn to experience all the good life has to offer for the kid’s sake. Sheriff S still needs his son, and if there’s any chance Stiles still needs him, he’s not going to risk driving him away.

Sheriff S goes inside, and Stiles desperately wants to follow. If it weren’t life or death, he would.

At the club, Scott asks if Stiles is okay. Then, sensing something, Scott runs off.

In the club, Erica and Isaac are wandering around.

Matt and Allison are, too, and seeing Scott, she excuses herself. When they meet, she’s even more emotionally vulnerable than before, and Scott doesn’t help by grilling her. He’s angry at learning the Argents have a plan due to him having a plan he didn’t bother to tell her about.

She begs him to let her help him make things right, and yelling at her to stay out of the way, he walks away.

Allison’s a teenage girl who is aware she’s in over her head. This is her first love. She’s trying to do what she believes to be right, and the whole world is against her.

Even if Victoria hadn’t died, she and Scott wouldn’t have lasted. He’s made her into the crying girl begging for a boy’s approval and validation she never wanted to be. The one she’s always been afraid of being. Despite her fear, she let herself be vulnerable, she let herself be open, and she embraced her desire to be supportive.

There aren’t many parallels between Scott and Chris, but Scott did a lot of the same things Chris does. He idealised her, he refused to believe he didn’t need to constantly protect her, and when she did something he viewed as wrong, he was harsh and treated it like the end of the world.

She can’t escape her family right now, but if the boyfriend they don’t want her to have is going to be just like them, why would she stay?

Outside, Stiles is pouring the mountain ash.

Out of his sight, the Argents arrive.

Inside, Scott explains Isaac needs to drug Jackson. Explaining what to do and how to do it, he warns Isaac to be careful.

Giving a chuckling scoff, Isaac assures him, “Well, I doubt I’ll even slightly hurt him.”

“No, I mean you. I don’t want you to get hurt.”

In response, Isaac stares at him.

I do believe this happened, but I’m pretty sure it’s due to Deaton convincing him to try to get the betas on his side. Isaac’s been deemed the most likely to sway.

This was an accurate guess, but it’s not due to a lack of loyalty. Isaac is extremely loyal. But Derek can only screw up and not keep so many promises before Isaac finds himself seeking kindness and someone who might appreciate all the caring and loyalty he has to offer from someone else.

Whatever Scott’s motives, here he’s doing a great job at setting himself up as a person who could be that.

Outside the hunters minus Gerard come across Derek and Boyd. Chris orders him to back off, and Derek retorts he expected a better threat from Chris.

In response, all the hunters cock and point their guns. “Okay, then, how about: Didn’t anyone ever tell you not to bring claws to a gunfight?”

“That one sounded pretty good,” Boyd helpfully supplies. Heh.

There are intercut scenes of the hunters against the werewolves and Isaac and Erica dancing with Jackson. There’s a possibility Isaac and Erica kiss.

Stiles is pouring the mountain ash.

Jackson claws Erica and Isaac, but as someone noted, Isaac shows the most willpower out of all the werewolves so far. Managing to fight the paralysis, he stabs Jackson.

Outside, Victoria runs over Scott.

Meanwhile, Stiles is almost out of mountain ash. He leaves a voicemail begging Scott for help. Then, he sees Harris’s car nearby, and he focuses on the quote.

Concentrating, he lets himself believe, and he’s overjoyed when he realises it actually worked. It’s a great scene.

Others have pointed this out much more comprehensively than me: This was a test on Deaton’s part. Any human could probably throw down mountain ash and have it work, regardless of what they knew/believed about the supernatural. Deaton gave him too little, and his belief managed to produce just enough to do what he needed.

In a room, Victoria has wolfs bane burning. She announce she’s going to kill Scott.

Elsewhere, Stiles comes into the room with Isaac and a non-paralysed Erica. Isaac tries to wake Jackson up with his claws, but K-Jackson grabs him. Once he’s free, Stiles orders them not to go near K-Jackson with claws again.

K-Jackson wakes up, and in his possessed voice, he declares, “I’m here. We’re all here.”

I wonder if Haynes is managing to do the voice or if he’s being dubbed.

Meanwhile, Victoria explains she’s going to make Scott’s death look like he had a bad asthma attack.

In the club, Matt and Allison are walking around. They bump into a glassless Harris with a significantly younger woman. He defensively informs them she’s twenty-one.

As long as any adult company he keeps is, at least, eighteen and not a student in his high school, I really don’t think they care or even want to know about what he does with whom in his personal life. I know I don’t.

Outside, Boyd has been hit with a wolfs bane bullet. Citing his own need to find Scott, Derek tells him to leave with the car. Boyd is reluctant, but Derek is firm.

Back to Stiles and the others. K-Jackson says he’s killing the people who murdered him. Then, he starts to go lizard-y.

Outside, Gerard puts his hand over the mountain ash barrier. There’s an implication he can’t break it or cross over it.

Inside, Matt notices Allison isn’t having a good time, and they have a nice moment. Then, misreading things, he kisses her. At her reaction, he immediately apologises. Unsure how to handle this, she withdraws to make a phone call.

In the room, Stiles is annoyed Isaac used all the ketamine, and the three quickly exit. They talk about finding something to block the door.

Only, K-Jackson just bursts through the wall. Heh.

Less funny is him killing the classmate.

Outside, Stiles crosses the line. He lets Derek know about them about losing Jackson. Isaac and Erica come out, and they pause when they get close to the line.

Stiles is adorably proud of himself. “I did something!”

In the torture room, Scott informs Victoria he isn’t alone. He lets out a howl/growl/roar.

Isaac and Erica must have gone back inside to try to track down K-Jackson back down. Derek hears, and he demands Stiles break the line. “Scott’s dying!”

Stiles wants more information, but Derek’s panicking is enough to convince him to obey without further question.

In the torture room, Scott asks Victoria to tell Allison he’s sorry.

Some part of me has always thought the apology was for bringing Derek in despite knowing Derek would likely hurt her.

Coming in, Derek fights Victoria. She flees, and he drags Scott out.

Outside, Gerard grabs Allison. She’s emotional, and he comforts her before suggesting they go home.

Later, despite his suspension, Sheriff S is at the crime scene. He finds out the classmate wasn’t on the list.

At the clinic Derek sits. He softly thanks Deaton for helping Scott, and ignoring him, Deaton goes to another part of the clinic.

Morrell is there, and I’d think Derek would hear them talking, but it seems he doesn’t.

They snipe at each, and she makes the good point he shouldn’t leave everything up to kids. He’s right they’re capable of more than they’re given credit for, but just because a person, especially a kid, is capable of handling something bad, it doesn’t mean they should have to.

She asks if he’s going to tell them what’s coming, and he says they have enough to worry about.

Not telling someone information they need so that they can be prepared is never a good thing unless a person specifically says, ‘I’m willing to chance dying or other deadly consequences in exchange for a set time of peace and blissful ignorance.’

Yet, despite this, I still didn’t recognise Deaton’s shadiness for a long time. Gilliam is just so good at making Deaton likeable, and for a long time, I found the character trustworthy.

Elsewhere, Victoria finds Chris. Running, he grabs her, and finally releasing all the energy she’s put into staying upright, she lets herself fall.

He discovers the bite, and of course, he knows what it means. However, he’s finally letting himself be the person he’s tried so hard not to be.

This is his best friend, his soulmate, his wife, the mother of his child, and she’s hurt. He just has to help her, get her better, and then, she and their baby girl will be fine. She can be better even as a werewolf, because, she’ll still be alive. He knows so much more about how to contain feral ones than he did when his friend tried to kill him, and once they get through her lack of control, once she achieves it, she'll be the same person she's always been.

Never mind the voice nagging him in the back of his mind.

She smiles, and I get the impression some part of her thinks it would be best for him simply to snap her neck right here and now. Instead, he kisses her forehead and continues to hold her.

She’s the stronger of the two, and she’s never begrudged him this. If he can’t do it, she understands. If this had been him instead of her, she probably couldn’t, either.

The narrative never confirms or denies Derek biting her. I don’t believe he did. I don’t believe she ever told anyone he did, though, I do believe Gerard subtly manipulated Allison into believing it was Derek.

Someone else, however, had an interesting theory that she fought Scott or Derek, was hurt but not alpha bitten, and died from her wounds. I don’t buy this, but it’s a great theory.

What I’m not sure about is who or why. She’s shown changing, and she wouldn’t kill herself or fake her death over a regular werewolf bite. So, an alpha definitely bit her. It could have been one of the alpha pack. I don’t believe Satomi would have done it. There’s always the possibility there are other unknown alphas running around town, but the question is: Why would they have done this?

If it was one of the alpha pack, was it due to a personal grudge? Was it part of some sort of plan for something bigger? Kali doesn’t, and the twins might not, but Deucalion and Ennis both have reasons to despise the Argents, or at least, Gerard. Yet, would this absolutely stop them from working with Gerard?

Fin.


End file.
